ARTISTS EXPLORE ARCHS* : POP PRECIS

 

Artists exploring possibilities : Many of the LPs that made an impact this year, including SZA's 'SOS' and Olivia Rodrigo's 'Guts' came from looking inward.

100 gecs 10,000 gecs : SO MUCH great pop music walks a tightrope between stupidity and brilliance. 100 gecs see that tightrope and in the opening moments of their kaleidoscopically anarchic second album, '' 10,000 gecs,'' light it on fire.

'' If you think I'm stupid now, you should see me when I'm high,'' the digitally manipulated voice of Laura Les sings.

''And I'm smarter than I look; I'm the dumbest girl alive.''

100 gecs - Les and the producer Dylan Brady - are garbage collectors of modern cultural detritus who fashion pummeling pop-rock from the junkyard of our collective unconscious.

[ On one song of this album, they rhyme Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos, mosquitoes, barritos and Danny DeVito.]

But as nonsensical as these songs appear to be - and on some level, absolutely are - meaning and emotions trickle through. What seems like a novelty song about a frog at a kegger becomes, somehow, a poignant plea to accept social awkwardness in others.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.